Campbell, James Hepburn, 1820-1895

James Hepburn Campbell was a Pennsylvania lawyer, U.S. Representative, Civil War officer and American diplomat.

James Hepburn Campbell (1820-1895), successful lawyer, politician, and diplomat, was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to Francis C. Campbell and Jane Hepburn. He graduated from the law department at Dickinson College, was admitted to the bar in 1841, and set up a practice in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, shortly thereafter. His marriage in 1842 to Juliet H. Lewis, daughter of Chief Justice Ellis Lewis of Pennsylvania, helped situate Campbell squarely in an influential position both in law and politics. In 1844, Campbell represented his district in the national Whig convention, nominating Henry Clay for president; in 1855, he took a seat in Congress as a Whig, serving for one term, and was returned as a Republican in both 1859 and 1861. By the 1860s, Campbell had established a reputation as an able leader through his work on the Pacific Railroad Bill.

With the escalation of the Civil War in the spring of 1861, Campbell chose to leave home to join in the defense of Washington, D. C. Traveling by train through rioting mobs in Baltimore, he arrived in the capital on April 19th and immediately enlisted as a Private in Major Cassius M. Clay's short-lived Capital Guard. The following month he was elected major of the 25th Pennsylvania Infantry, a regiment which lasted only three months. He returned to active duty during Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863, helped General Nagle recruit a regiment of 1,100 men, and became lieutenant colonel the 39th Pennsylvania Infantry Militia. In the following year, Lincoln appointed Campbell as United States minister to Sweden and Norway, where he served for three years.

After 1867, Campbell returned to a private legal practice in Philadelphia, where he remained until he retired to his estate Aeola, near Wayne, Pennsylvania. He died in Wayne on April 12, 1895, and is buried in Philadelphia.